Kultur

Today I was going to indulge in some art and music.

My plan was to hit Stuttgart's "cultural mile" and explore the centre, then in the evening I had a ticket to see a musician I like called Tommy Emmanuel. 

After I'd eaten breakfast I headed out. I got to the road almost without needing a map, and hit the cultural mile near the bottom. It was right next to the rathaus, which lonely planet informs me boasts a vintage paternoster lift (where there are no doors and it just continues on a permanent loop). I wasn't sure it was open to the public, so gave that one a miss.

Further up were various museums, but I eventually hit my goal of the Staatsgalerie (state gallery). It was very interesting. Below are a couple of pieces I liked in tiny version mode. I don't want to be done for copyright or anything, but hopefully illustrates that the gallery has a broad range of works from modernist, expressionist, classical, romantic and more. It also had a number of originals from Andy Warhol and Picasso.

After that some more general wandering. Stuttgart is a very interesting looking place. Lots of brutalist, cubic art deco sort of buildings put together in interesting ways... huge square windows and blocky, kind of industrious. Business like... Then some 18th century sprinkled in.

Anyway I bought a butterpretzel for a light lunch / snack and headed back to the hotel to get ready for the gig!

I spent quite a long time back at the hotel agonising over how the hell I was going to actually get to the theaterhaus - which was in a more northerly part of the city. Well over an hour's walk away so not really do-able by foot. Although I did seriously consider it. I somewhat settled on the idea of trying for an uber / taxi. I went on to the theater's site to check that the show was still on or if there was any news, and noticed an alert at the top of the site warning of increased visitor numbers today because of the show. It had a link for general info, which I followed. That page informed me that if you had an event ticket, they said it gave a free return trip on any VVS transport. 

Hm, what could that be?

Any public transport in the city, Google informs me. Perhaps that could be an option. Then I spent ages more checking the VVS site & learning what stops were where etc and trying to plan a route for that. COMMENCE NOTE SCRIBBLING!

After a spot of dinner I  headed out to find out if I could make it to the theaterhaus.

I had of course done miles more prep than I needed. I basically just needed to know the train number and destination. Made it there with ease. Stuttgart's mass transit system is pretty good!*

I got to the theaterhaus with no trouble, sat in my seat and got chatting to a nice man about the show, my trip etc. When I thought to ask him & double check I was in the right seat - I of course wasn't. Oops! Apparently my ticket was for the Tribune (grandstand) - further back with the muggles. He kindly showed me to the actual right place & then it was on with the show.

It was phenomenal! Tommy Emmanuel is an absolute genius and I kept thinking - wow look at that old bugger go! He's still got it.

An English guy called Mike Dawes supported, who was also very good. He came back at the end to do a few numbers with Tommy. Fun highlight was a cover of smells like teen spirit by Nirvana. 

After that a quick and efficient train ride back to the hotel & straight to bed to be fresh for the trip to Freiburg tomorrow.

* probably not a hot take at all, is it.